Simon's Return
by thomas.gillum.9
Summary: What happens when Marceline gets an offer she can't refuse? A beast so evil it makes the Lich blush offers the one thing in the world she wants more than anything. How will Finn react when his friend goes off the deep end. I will try to upload a chapter a week, but life and all that.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

In Which Marceline Is Bargained With

Marceline was having fun, Finn and Jake were at her house and they were trying out her new guitar that she got from the music Wizard's shop in an inpromptu jam session. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been happy so many days in a row. Before she met Finn, her only friends were three idiot ghosts who only wanted to do stupid stuff like kill people, and before then there was Ash who she tried to think about as little as possible. She knew it couldn't last though, nothing in her life ever did.

"I'm done for today guys."

"But" said Finn with a frown."I was just starting to get mah groooove on."

"Maybe tomorrow, alright?" Marceline told Finn.

"All right, I guess we'll see you later." Finn said. "C'mon Jake, I heard Ice King kidnapped Hot Dog princess' hot dog knights anyway.

"Aww, do we have to? They're just so stupid." replied Jake as they left, their voices trailing away.

Marceline was not sure why she sent the two away, she felt like she could play for hours, but it always happened this way. When she got too attached to something, she always started backing away. She decided it probably had something to do with her fry eating father, but she didn't like to dwell.

Marceline suddenly noticed a presence in the room. A corner of the wall was just a little too bright she looked right at it and said, "Get out of my house, or I will math you up." A bit of the wall peeled off revealing a creature she had not seen before, which was pretty rare for her since she had been the entire length of Ooo and beyond. It had a bird's head but with a furry, bipedal body. A long tuft of brown hair grew along it's neck and almost reached all the way to it's waist.

"You are Marceline, the Vampire Queen, I take it." It didn't speak as a normal person would, the beak prevented that, but used telepathy powerful enough to pierce the mental barriers she had set on her mind. That fact unsettled her.

"If you know that much, then you know not to mess with me." She wasn't feeling brave, but she knew how to play the part well. Living on your own in a destroyed world did that to you.

"Now now, I did not come to fight. I have come to make you a deal that you most certainly will want to hear." As it said this, it began licking it's paw in a disturbingly animal gesture.

"I'm sure you don't have anything to offer me that would be worth my time." Marceline was not sure what to make of the creature, but she did know one thing. This creature had the unmistakable stench of evil all over it.

"But my dear, I am offering you the one thing that you want more than anything in the world. I'm offering you Simon Petrikov returned to you in full."

Marceline was stunned, she didn't know how this creature knew her deepest darkest hope. She didn't trust it but it didn't matter. If the creature thought it could bring Simon back it was worth watching just in case. Even though she knew it could mean the end of her and Finn as friends, she only hesitated a second before saying; "I'm listening."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ice King Dreams

He had the dream again. Almost the same one every night for a month. A dark cave, a giant pillar of ice, and inside the ice sat his crown along with a golden tiara. They seemed to pulse in harmony with each other, almost as if they were the same being just split in two. He hated the dream because he knew it was a warning from the crown, of something evil approaching. He couldn't figure out what it meant though. His fractured mind couldn't concentrate hard enough to understand it's meaning. Well he had other things to do today anyway, he was finally going to get married! At least if Hot Dog princess wanted her stupid knights back he was.

"Gunther, where are you?" He screeched into the empty room."Gunther?" He got out of bed and walked out the door of his room but didn't see any penguins anywhere. He walked toward the t.v. room where he kept the princess' "holding area." "Gunther?" Looking around the room, he finally saw Gunther tied up in a corner. "Oh, there you are Gunther. Where's my breakfast?" He didn't even see Finn's fist swinging at him.

He woke up for the second time that day with a heavy weight on top of him. Looking up, all he could see was orange fur."Jake, would you please get off of me. I promise I've learned my lesson this time, honest." He hadn't really, he was just sly like that.

"Nuh uh, Ice King, you gotta pay for what you did." Jake shifted his weight a little to make sure Ice King was secured good and tight. "Bubblegum will be here soon and she's got a lot to say to you."

Ice King sighed, he knew he was going to get a stern talking to by Bubblegum for this." Math it Jake, I was so close. Why do you and Finn always Princess Block me. I was gonna marry Hot Dog princess and be reasonably happy this time."

"There's no way Hot Dog Princess was going to marry you, you're too old and creepy." Then Jake said with a thoughtful look on his face,"I do have sympathy for you though, you had to put up with her knights for a whole day."

"Glob they're stupid." Ice King said with a sigh."Did you know one of them asked me when they were going to get their presents? I kept telling him I'm not santa but he wouldn't listen." Ice King started wiggling his hand free, reaching for his crown.

"Finn will be here soon with Bubblegum and Hot Dog Princess. Don't worry, you won't have to deal with them any more." Jake casually reached down, grabbed the crown and threw it out the window,

"My crown! Why'd you hafta go and do that. Now I'll have to spend all day making Gunther dig through the snow to find it." Ice King didn't know why he said what he said next, it might have been the crown's influence."Jake, have you and Finn ever saw a tiara that looks just like my crown in your travels?"

Jake thought about it for a second, then said "I don't think so, but if we had, I wouldn't tell you. There is no way we'd let you put it on a princess' head and let her catch your crazies."

"Jake this is important. I've had a dream about the tiara posing a danger to everyone. I need to know if you've seen it. I can't let my future brides be hurt Jake, I just can't!"

"Well" Jake started, but at that moment Finn, Bubblegum and Hot Dog Princess arrived through the window on Lady's back.

"I have had it with you Simon." Bubblegum started as soon as she was off Lady's back. "You can't just go along trying to make princess' marry you by kidnapping their subjects." Bubblegum was in rare form today. "First it was Cinnamon Bun and Mr. Cupcake, then Flambo. Now you kidnap innocent Hot Dog knights, you are hereby grounded for a month."

"A month, but I didn't even do anything!"

As this conversation was going on, nobody noticed a shadow just under the windowsill with a glint of gold in it's hand. A faint whisper came out of it. "I'll be back Simon, just hold on a little longer."Gunther didn't find the Ice Crown after searching that whole day.


	3. Chapter 2 and a half

Chapter 2.5

Hunson debates

It was difficult for even one like Hunson to gaze into the future. So many different possibilities, so many choices. It was like trying to find a single leaf in a river full of leaves rushing downstream. So far he had pinpointed only a few endings to the game currently being played on oOo that didn't end with Marceline heartbroken. He could act, that was what a good father would do, send an imp or familiar to nudge the world in the right direction. Of course there was always the noninterference treaty he had been forced to sign by the Cosmic Owl, that still rankled him to this day, and there existed the possibility that the pain would be just enough to send her into her father's clutches. Oh he meant arms of course. He might finally get his daughter back after all these years, blast those forsaken fries! Hunson didn't even like the math things, he only ate them because they looked like little severed fingers. He would wait and see how this tale unfolded, and if it got too dangerous he could always just yank her back home. oOo would probably be destroyed in one way or another if the situation got that dire, but he needed to get revenge on the brat and his little dog anyway. Yes waiting was definitely the right call.

Author's note: Got pumped up because of three good reviews in just as many hours, but this will probably be the last chapter I post for a while. I'm pretty lethargic in real life. Only two characters in the story will be OC the rest might have changed personalities a bit and if that's so then I blame parallel dimensions. It's totally their fault.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Finn Gets Bored and Does Something About It

"Sorry BMO, I just can't get into Guardians of Sunshine right now." Finn was bored, he had just gotten back from the Ice King's castle where he and Jake spent the entire day looking for the Ice King's stupid crown. He had finally told Simon that it was stolen just so he could make an excuse to go find the "thief." Jake probably just threw it too hard when he chucked it out of the window.

"Well then Finn, what do you want to do." BMO sat on the floor looking mildly upset, or as upset as a robot could look.

"I dunno, video games are boring and Jake is off babysitting the pups while Lady Rainacorn and Peebs look for traces of Ice King's stupid crown." Bubblegum had taken what Finn said to heart about a thief and insisted that whoever stole the crown was the biggest threat to the Candy Kingdom right now. No one would steal his stupid hat. Who would voluntarily put on a crown that would make you crazy?

"I'll go visit Fire Princess, I guess. At least she won't be looking for a stupid crown." Deciding it was exactly what he'd do, he went to the stairs picking up his backpack and Dad's Sword on the way.

"Be careful Finn." BMO yelled after him. "If someone really did steal the crown they might come after you to stop you from stopping them." Finn wasn't too worried about that, even without Jake he could handle most anything oOo could throw at him.

After walking forever he finally made it to FP's bonfire home. It was night time and the air was cold. The cold was his first clue that something was wrong. The fire had gone out and there was no sign of FP anywhere. All of this talk about a hidden enemy sent a chill up Finn's bones "Fire Princess, are you here?" Finn cried out while circling around the logs.

"Nah, Hot Blood went out" said a voice near Finn's feet. Flambo leapt out from under a log and immediately shrunk a few sizes thanks to cutting off his fuel supply.

"Flambo, do you know where she went. I want to make sure she's okay." Finn sat on the log Flambo just jumped out from under. It felt just warm enough to be comfy.

"There was an emergency assembly cry from the Fire Kingdom's castle, she probably just went to see what was wrong."

"What, the Fire Kingdom's in trouble?" Finn jumped up, feeling a little sad to be leaving the comfy log, but if the Fire Kingdom was in trouble, that meant Fire Princess was in trouble too."Cast flame shield on me Flambo, I gotta go see what's wrong."

"Okay, but youse needs to be careful. They normally don't let visitors through in an emergency situation. Also, I think the Fire King still kinda hates you."

After the spell was done, it didn't take long to get to the gates of the Fire Kingdom, even going the long way around to avoid Ice King's domain. He really didn't need to get roped into searching for the crown right now, not when an adventure was brewing. "Halt, none have permission to enter the Fire Kingdom except it's own citizens." Two massive Flame Guards with giant copper spears barred the gates.

"I'm kinda expected guys. It's me Finn the hero, and you have an emergency only a hero can solve." He doubted the guards would be stupid enough to fall for it, but he had to try something.

"Oh yes, Finn the Human." One guard bent down to get a better view of him. "The princess has requested your immediate presence in the throne room as soon as you had arrived. Do you remember the way?"

Yeah I remember, thanks guys." that was weird, why would FP be expecting him. Just then BMO called his phone to inform him a Fire Guard came to the house looking for him. "Two steps ahead as always." Finn said smugly to himself as he made his way into the throne room. The Fire King and Princess sat on gigantic thrones in the center of an amphitheater filled with fire people sitting in the seats. The princess looked so small sitting on the giant throne, Finn almost laughed out loud before remembering Flambo's warning.

"Finn thank you for coming so soon." Fire Princess jumped from her throne and ranover to him, stopping herself just before hugging him.

"It's cool, Flambo cast flame shield on me." He said before giving her a great big hug.

"Ahem, we are not amused." Spouted the sitting (but still giant) Fire King. "We have been persuaded by our daughter to ask for your help in a grave matter, young human."

Finn straightened up quick and looked the Fire King in the eye. "What do you need, your majesty."

"A lowly thief just thought it would be good fun to take the Fire Crown from it's place above the throne. We need you to find this thief for us. We are certain he has not left the castle as of yet." The king seemed embarrassed to be asking his help. It must have been a new experience for him to ask aid of anyone.

"I'm on it Fire King." Finn shouted as he ran out of the room watching for moving shadows. The one problem of a kingdom made of light was that the shadows were much more pronounced than normal. At the third room he entered he saw it, a moving bit of shadow running for a door. Finn ran after it. Weirdly, the thief managed to stay in total shadow, even when he walked in broad firelight. Running across the castle's palisade, he just caught a glimpse of the thief jumping on a tower.

It might have gone differently at this point, better or worse who could say but at that exact moment, the moon managed to push the darkness back just enough for him to see the thief's raven black hair. More importantly, however, it also revealed enough neck for Finn to see two pronounced puncture marks. "Marceline!" She stiffened as her name was called and, crown in hand, turned back toward Finn.

"Don't follow me Finn." It was the last thing she said as she jumped off the tower and flew away.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Marceline is (slightly) Filled with Regret

She knew he was going to follow her. You didn't hang out with someone a little over a year and not get a feeling of where they're coming from. There was no way Finn could just let her run around stealing magical crowns. Plus she was pretty sure the Fire Crown helped sustain the life force of it's entire kingdom, so there was always the fact that Flame Princess might die if it wasn't returned soon.

It didn't matter if he did follow her of course, they couldn't stop her. Sure with Jake's help, Finn could hurt her but she was immortal and it took a lot more than getting punched by a super sized dog fist to change that.

Marceline went back over that night in her head, the night the Winged Wizard made himself known to her. She knew his true name now, of course. He had told her when the explanation had started. 'The explanation, more like the marching orders,' she thought to herself. He had told her that in order to remove the corrupting influence the crown had on Simon's mind, she had to exhaust all of it's powers and have someone else become the Ice King. Marceline knew that the wizard wanted the crown for himself but she would find a way to deal with evil wielding the semi-godlike powers of the crown when Simon was back. The Wizard had said that the best way to exhaust the power was to put it up against it's polar opposite, the Fire Crown.

The Fire Crown, she was there when all the kings of oOo came together to add part of their power to create the crown. They had made it as a check to the Ice King's power, but even after all of the rulers had pushed themselves to the limit still more power was needed. So they had come to Marceline and asked her to do the one thing she despised more than anything else, call her dad and ask for a favor. Hunson had provided quite a bit of his power to the crown. Of course the price he asked was enormous. Never more could kings rule oOo, all had to abdicate their thrones and replace themselves with their own daughters.

That was the past, and in the present she was finally back home. "Hey, I got the crown," she called to the darkened room. He never turned on the light himself, he could probably see in the dark.

"Excellent, bring it here." He said, appearing from the deepest shadow. "We are almost ready. All we need is a place to pit the powers against each other."

"Why not just do it here." Marceline was sure of what the answer would be, but she wanted confirmation.

"Because the full power released from these two crowns would be enough to destroy oOo in it's entirety." She could see that having to explain everything was starting to try his patience. 'Good,' she thought to herself, 'I may have to work with him now, but the angrier he is, the easier I can take him out later.'

"Then where do you suggest we go if we can't do it in oOo. I don't think there is anything outside of oOo anymore."

"I've already told you girl. Don't you remember what I said when I introduced myself. I am the Simon Petrikov of another dimension. If oOo is not stable enough to handle the power of the crowns, we shall simply have to go to a more sturdy dimension. As luck would have it, I think I know just the place."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Jake has a question

"The thing is, all of our pups gained your intelligence Lady. They are all smarter than me." Jake was nervous about admitting this to Lady but felt he should get it out in the open.

(Lady responds in Korean)

"I know I should be proud of them, but when you walk in on them solving something you can't even comprehend on a chalkboard, it's a little disheartening."

(Lady replies with much more Korean dialect that I will not even try to transcribe)

"Yeah, I get what you're saying. I'd stay and chat more but I have to find Finn. You know he gets in trouble if I'm not constantly watching him." After saying this, Jake got up, said goodbye to his puppies and went to find Finn. He knew he was running from the issue. Lady and I will eventually have to talk about this, but not today.

Finn wasn't at the treehouse, but Beemo told Jake about the Fire Kingdom guard so Jake went to see Finn's crazy semi girlfriend. She told him about the Fire Crown being stolen and that Finn had chased the thief out near the dark forest. Jake finally tracked Finn down to a little forest clearing.

"What's up brother, did you catch the thief?" Jake noticed as he said this that Finn seemed pretty worn out.

"No, but I know who it is and you'll never guess in a million guesses." Finn jumped on Jake's back and they started off in the direction Finn pointed.

"Was it Marceline?"

"What, dude how did you guess so fast?" They were already nearing the shoreline, just a little farther to the cave.

"I dunno, Dog's intuition I guess. The fact that there's pretty much nothing out here but Marceline's Cave helped too." They had just gotten within sight of the cave mouth. "So do you know why she stole the crowns. did she say anything?"

"No she just said not to follow, so we might want to be all ninja mode right now." They were in the cave proper now. It was just as dark and dreary as they remembered it, with Marceline's house right in the center.

Gotcha, sneak mode on." So saying, Jake then immediately yelled out, "Marceline, you home? We came for the crowns."

Finn just looked at Jake for a minute then said, "You are literally the worst ninja in oOo. You know that Mountain Man near the Roughhouse, he would make a better ninja than you."

"You're just jelly of all my ninja-like skills." Getting no reply from his possibly ill concieved yell, Jake decided to open Marceline's door with his key hand.

"Don't do it man. You know she doesn't like us in her house when she's not home." Even after saying this, Finn quickly followed Jake through the was an emergency after all. Looking around, they quickly came to the conclusion that no one was home.

"Looks like no one's here Finn. Well how do we figure out where they are?" Jake suddenly got a nagging feeling in the back of his head about something the Ice King had said to him earlier, but at the same time a loud noise was heard from the entrance of the cave so Finn and Jake rushed outside, Finn with sword drawn and Jake with uh... paws? ready.

What they saw when they got to the cave entrance was the last thing they expected to see, a 14 year old girl riding a pink cat that seemed to have the same stretchy powers as Jake. They were quite reasonably shocked and the girls were not dealing with it any better. "It must be some sort of crazy mirror spell, Finn. It's like Marceline is using the Ice King's stories to create an evil reflection for us to battle. We'll probably have to deal with them before we can move on." Seeing Fionna and Cake triggered the same feeling that Jake had before, that something the Ice King had said earlier was very important.

"Who are you calling evil, mutt. Me and Fionna are gonna make you tell us where the Winged Wizard is hiding. If you don't cooperate, it's gonna hurt." Cake and Jake were about ready to pounce on each other but Fionna and Finn hesitated.

"What do you mean a Winged Wizard?" Finn couldn't help admiring Fionna. He knew if Flame Princess found out, he would get roasted so he tried not to look too hard.

"He's the guy we came into your universe to find. Prizmo told us he came here looking for something he lost in our universe." Fionna also couldn't help but stare at Finn. He seemed like a cross between the toughness of Marshall Lee and the kindness of Gumball. Unlike Finn she didn't have someone in her life and could look as much as she wanted.

"Oh Prizmo sent you." Jake visibly relaxed. "That guy is awesome, if he sent you then you're cool."

"Uh huh, awesome wouldn't be the way I'd describe him but everyones got their own tastes baby." Cake had thought Prizmo was a bit too much, but the guy had helped them out eventually. He did make great sandwiches though.

"Well anyway, w'd like to help you guys but we've got an emergency of our own. The Ice Crown has been stolen and..."

Fionna interrupted Finn. "But that's what the Winged Wizard is seeking, the Ice Crown of the Ice King. He must have been the one to do it."

"I know who did it but maybe the Wizard is secretly pulling their strings. Well anyway we're stuck, we've got no way of knowing where they have gone. They didn't leave any clues in the house."

"Well we have this tracker that's attuned to the Wizard's location. I used my wish on it after making sure Cake wished for us to follow him."

"Well let's go. We have to hurry, Marceline can fly pretty fast." Finn and Fionna both jumped on their respected siblings and off they went.

It was then that everything finally snapped into place for Jake. He realized what part of the Ice King's dialogue had bothereed him. He turned to Finn and asked, "Dude, do you know what a Santa is?"


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Bubblegum, Finn and Marceline have a talk

She was following them, not because she didn't trust Finn and Jake, but because they might need her help. That's what Bonnibel told herself at least. The truth was she still had not found the Ice Crown or any sign of a thief and Jake was the last one to see it. Finn and Jake were known to do some silly stuff, but she doubted they would mess with the crown. Especially after finding out Simon's secret. She and Marceline had tried to keep that bit of knowledge away from the boys for their own good. They thought that if Finn found out he was just beating up a tired old man every time he fought the Ice King, then he might stop adventuring alltogether. oOo needed Finn and Jake to keep the peace so she kept t he secret. Ultimately it didn't matter of course, they had underestimated Finn like everyone tended to do. Still if there was a chance that Finn was planning to use the Ice Crown for some silly game, she as the Candy Kingdom's princess had to stop him.

They stopped at Marceline's Cave, which made Bonnibel think. When was the last time she had seen marceline, could she have taken the Ice and Fire crowns to try and save Simon? No, Marceline didn't know the secret to making the failsafe work. If someone who did know came to her though?

She had just decided not to dwell on that possibility when a giant orange cat came to the cave's entrance, and on it's back rode a young girl wearing Finn's outfit. "Fionna and Cake? How did the Ice King..." When the boys came ouit of the cave and drew their weapons, she started to intervene, she didn't have to though, as everything seemed all right after a tense minute of talking. Fionna drew a crystal like object out of her bag then Finn, Fionna and Cake all jumped on Jake's back and started walking away. "C'mon Morrow," she said to the giant bird, "we need to see where they're going."

All the way to the destination, Bonnibel kept catching herself stealing glances of Finn and Fionna talking and laughing on Jake's back. She told herself she was watching for treachery from the blonde haired girl, but then why did it make her so upset? She decided that she had to let it go. Many years ago, when she first met Finn, she knew there could be nothing between them. She was too old for him and had an entire kingdom to run. He was reckless and irresponsible most of the time. Imagining him with Flame Princess and now with Fionna still made her want to lock Finn in a deep dark dungeon only she had the key for.

They came to rest in a clearing at the heart of a forest. In the clearing was a single tree and on that tree was The Crystal Apple. She knew then that it had been Marceline who stole the crowns. The failsafe relied on a stable dimension to function, and there existed no more stable dimension than the Crystal Kingdom. Finn, Jake, Fionna, and Cake all took a turn biting the crystal apple, and Bonnibel knew hers was next. Sending Morrow away, she walked over to the tree. A funny sight awaited her when she got over there though. A penguin Palanquin with the Ice King on top was coming out of the forest. The Ice King looked at Bonnibel and said "They went into the Crystal Kingdom huh. Well I'm going too! I want my crown back." Bonnibel said nothing, she just picked the Crystal Apple off the ground, took a bite and threw the rest at him.

What awaited her on the other side was a stalemate. Finn and the others on one side, Marceline, Ash, Marceline's three weird ghost friends and a strange... presence on the other. Both sides turned to her when she entered, so she immedistely told Finn, "Stay right there, Finn. Don't make a move until I tell you to."

"Oh, great, look who's here, Little Miss Responsibility." Marceline said with a groan. "I had hoped you'd stay out of this one, but if you're here to stop me, go ahead and try."

"I don't think you know the situation, Princess." Finn said with a frown. "Marceline and her new... friend are trying to drain the two crowns, and if that happens there's a chance Flame Princess could die. You know I can't let that happen."

" I know Finn, just give me a second to talk to Marceline about what's happening." Bonnibel hoped Finn would listen just this once, but knew even if he did, she would have just one shot at talking Marceline out of what she was planning. "Marcy, you know what he's planning to do once the crowns are depowered, don't you."

Marceline replied, "Of course, he's gonna try to take the Ice Crown's power for himself. There's just one problem with that plan, there seems to be almost every hero in oOo here ready to take him out if he tried."

" Well you might be right, but you know what might happen to the Flame Kingdom if the power of the Fire Crown is cut off even for a second?"

" Yes, I know what MIGHT happen, but I also know what will happen to Simon if i don't do this. He'll stay that insane monster for the rest of eternity."

Just as she finished saying this, Ice King popped into existence behind Bonnibel and said. " Oh, are we having a party? Dance with me Bubblegum." So saying, he grabbed Bonnibel and started dancing around.

Finn shouted "Enough talking, Marceline are you going to hand over the Fire Crown or not? This is your last warning."

Marceline looked sad as she replied, "Bring it blondie."

All math broke loose.


	8. Chapter 7 (AFD)

Chapter 7

The Battle

Marcy leapt on Finn and tryed to stomp his face in, but Finn was so fast he got away. Meanwhile Ash and Fionna began to throw insults at each other, oOo had never known Yo Momma So Fat slinging ever before or ever again. Jake and Cake looked at the three ghosts, then bro fisted each other so hard that the ghosts were evaporated. After that, they decided to go beat up a Dragon and left. Finn punched Marcy in the boob and she screamed like a little girl at the same time that Fionna cut off Ash's head with a particularly nasty insult. Princess Bubblegum convinced Ice King to fight and he started running toward the Winged Wizard. the Wizard also started running toward him, then the Crystal Guardians appeared, but Bubblegum punched them in the face. Finn started tickling Marcy and she finally surrendered, BMO gave Finn a high five. The Winged Wizard gathered all his magic in his hand and so did the Ice King then they ran at each other as fast as possible and kept running. When they finally met, they both punched each other so hard the whole multiverse shattered and everything died except Prizmo, the Cosmic Owl and the Lich who was still at Prizmo's house.

The End

Author's Note: Happy April Fool's Day everybody. (For any foreign readers who are confused, the First of April is when people in the USA and other countries try to prank each other, sorry.) Real chapter comes tomorrow.


	9. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Things get out of hand

"Turns out, ghosts are vulnerable to demon blood. I did not know this." Marceline was standing off to the side, catching her breath. The fight was not going well for her side, the ghosts, her heavy hitters were already down and Ash wasn't faring any better. The Winged Wizard was also upset. This battle was not going the way he thought it would. He knew Fiona and Cake's strength well having faced them many times in their home dimension, but he had no idea that she and this Finn could work together as well as they had. It was almost like they were the same person. Of course they sort of WERE the same person, he mused. He turned away from the battle and refocused his attention on what he was was a very delicate magical alignment and the slightest miscalculation could destroy the Fire Crown and all would be lost. "Hold them off for just a little longer, girl. I have almost finished."

"I don't know how long that little bit will be but they're ripping through those constructs you summoned. Do you have anymore" After saying that, she caught Fiona in mid air and threw her at Bubblegum, then took a grazing blow from Cake in retaliation. No the battle was not going well.

"No, make do." Taking a peek at the carnage, the Wizard saw his alter in this world pointing and laughing as Bubblegum kicked one of his dog golems in what would be a very sensitive area on a real dog. "Fool," he muttered to himself, "he has all the power he would ever need and he allowed the crown to turn him into that giggling idiot." He finally finished the fine tuning just as Marceline fell under multiple blows from the heroes. "Now is the beginning of my reign as king." He shouted as he poured power into both crowns, triggering the defensive systems of both of them at once.

"Uh oh, Finn I think we have a problem." Jake said while kicking a fallen Ash. 'Those crowns are getting awfully bright at each other."

Finn looked in the direction of the crowns and said "This might be bad. Princess, you got a plan for this?"

"Run!" She bolted toward the portal dragging The Ice King with her, but tripped at the last second. Finn, Cake, Fiona and Jake ran through the portal, Finn carrying Marceline to her annoyment and Jake with Ash. The ghosts could handle themselves.

Once through, they all turned to look at the crystal apple tree. It started withering as they watched, collapsing in on itself. "Where's Simon." Marcy asked while staring back at the collapsing tree.

"Princess Bubblegum tripped at the last second. You better hope she got out because otherwise that battle we had in there will look like a slap fight in comparison to what's coming." Finn was not very happy with her at the moment.

Then suddenly a ray of light came from the almost fallen tree and out stepped Simon Petrikov carrying Bubblegum and the Fire Crown under his arms. He walked over to a stricken Marceline, looked her straight in the face and said " Marcy, we need to talk." Then the tree and the area around it started to freeze. A figure poked his way through the ice and on his head sat the Ice Crown. "Now, my rightful power has finally been restored. The Winged Wizard is no more, now there is only the Emperor of Ice. The icy fog around the creature made it impossible to see. It took off with a start and flew straight to the Ice Kingdom while the others could only watch.

Finn turned toward Marceline and said "You do have a plan for this out come don't you?"

Not taking her eyes off the restored Simon she replied with "Yeah, I was just going to throw you at him."

Jake, with excellent comedic timing, said "Perfect."


	10. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

A plan is Hatched

Only a few minutes after his return and Simon was already making Marceline feel like a heel for what she did. He didn't want to. He wanted to grab her and give her the biggest hug of her life, but what she did was unacceptable. " I wasn't just trapped in the Ice Crown, I also greatly limited it's power. Without me, ice and snow may soon cover the entire planet."

"I know Simon, but it's been 1000 years almost. I just wanted to see you again." Marceline looked very contrite, but she refused to back off.

"I understand what you're saying but if this other me gets his way, we'll both be dead inside a week anyway." He had to try to make her understand that sometimes the price was too high.

"This is getting us nowhere." Bubblegum said motioning them into a semicircle. "We have to find a way to stop him now that he has the power to destroy oOo."

Simon looked guilty for a second but quickly hid it. Fiona, who had been studying him saw it and asked "Mr Petrikov, do you know a way we can stop him?"

Simon sighed, then looked at the others and said "I may know one way,but it is far too dangerous." Looking around at all the anxious faces, Simon knew he had no choice but to tell them. "In this land there exists only one thing that can match the power of the Ice Crown, It's twin the Ice Tiara."

Everyone looked stunned, especially Fionna and Cake. They knew of the Ice Tiara, they had fought its wielder all of their lives. "Do you mean the Ice Tiara is here? The Ice Queen used it to send us to this dimension to hunt down Dubyah. The Ice Queen would never give it up."

Simon knew that he had to tell them. It was the most painful experience of his life but the time had come to finally share it. "In the time before what you call the Mushroom Wars, I was a famous antiquarian. I and my sister Simone, who was also famous but as an archaeologist went on a trip to Scandinavia. There we met a dock worker who sold to us two items he found while exploring a frozen cave. They were oval shaped and caked in rust. When we cleaned off the rust what we found were a shining golden crown and tiara. Of course at that time we knew nothing of their true power and both of us decided to take one to study. You saw the video of what happened to me and Simone's story was much the same except when the fighting finally came to us we chose different paths. I chose to run and hide from the responsibility and terror of the crown while Simone used her power to nullify most of the damage the "Mushrooms" produced. I truly believe without her aid the world would never have supported life again. The power came with a cost, she mutated into the greatest evil the land of oOo will hopefully ever know,the Lich."

Finn and Fionna were shocked by this confession having heard nothing about this before. The others looked toward Finn, Cake towards Fionna, as if worried that Simon had said too much. "Get to the point Simon." Marceline said hoping to derail any questions Finn might ask him.

"Because it was bound to my sister, the Ice Tiara would not work for the creature so it discarded it. I found it and hid it. If we can get to the Tiara, we could theoretically nullify the crown's power long enough for it to be removed. The only problem is..."

"That the Tiara twists the mind of the wearer the same as the crown does." Cake said, interrupting Simon mid sentence.

"So," Marceline said, "the question is, who will wear it." Finn looked at Fionna and Bubblegum, Jake studied Cake and Simon stared at Marceline. Who would wear the tiara?


End file.
